In the House of Representatives, it could soon be impeach season

It might be about time to get tickets for the Barack Obama impeachment trial.

This isn’t because Obama has piled up an impressive pile of high crimes and misdemeanors, or that he has big plans to replace the border crossings with neon signs reading “Y’all Come!” It’s because the House of Representatives had the power to impeach him, and is having increasing trouble thinking of anything else to do.

Legislating, after all, it gave up on a while ago. Unlike the Senate, it doesn’t have federal nominations to act on, or not act on.

What it can do, and what it’s going to hear more and more demand from its base to do, is impeach the president. Whether there’s any real chance of conviction and removal, GOP House members can figure, isn’t their problem.

It’s the Senate’s, and the House isn’t really worried about its problems.

Back in the last century, a Republican House that was 16 years less extreme than this one impeached Bill Clinton because it could, although the chance of the Senate producing a two-thirds vote for conviction was about the same as Newt Gingrich getting elected president.

The House that comes into office after the elections this November may not be much more Republican, but it’s likely to be more extreme. Over the August recess, and the fall campaign, the members will hear from the people demanding to know why Obama hasn’t been impeached and chased back to Kenya already.

Sometime in the next year or so, the House may impeach Obama, just because it can.